Teen stabbed in Oriole Park home

Police continue to seek a suspect in relation to a stabbing early Saturday morning.

Const. Sabrina Grunow, media liaison for the Red Deer City RCMP, said a 17-year-old youth had sought treatment at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre at about 2:45 a.m.

Police were called when medical staff determined that the youth had been stabbed once in the back. Investigators learned that the youth had been involved in a disturbance and fight at a residence in Oriole Park.

Red Deer City RCMP are now asking that anyone who has information contact the detachment at 403-343-5575 or, to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Halloween food drive on Friday

Red Deer Food Bank is gearing up for a “spooktacular” donation night.

The 15th annual Halloween Food Drive takes place on Friday night.

A group of young people and their adult drivers and other volunteers will be collecting food donations in grocery bags between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m.

More than 400 teens, most of them from church groups, and 100 drivers are expected to cover 75 per cent of Red Deer homes.

Residents can help by leaving non-perishables in a bag at the front door.

This is Red Deer Food Bank’s largest food drive of the year.

Breaking bail results in fine

A Red Deer man who broke conditions of his bail release on drug trafficking charges received time served in custody and a fine in provincial court on Wednesday.

Carl Dean Krieger, 35, received credit for 137 days spent in remand in the last year and was fined $650 on the bail violations and fleeing police during a pursuit last spring.

Krieger was set to have a trial on seven charges but changed his plea. He pleaded guilty to failing to stop for police, possession of cocaine, two counts of failing to appear in court and two counts of breaching bail conditions.

On May 6, city RCMP street team members tried to stop Krieger in a vehicle on 43rd Street and 57th Avenue but he took off.

The 10:20 p.m. pursuit last a few blocks through residential streets and reached speeds of 70 km/h before Krieger stopped and took off on foot.

He was arrested a short time later and police found a small quantity of crack cocaine in the vehicle.

He was accompanied by a woman he had been ordered to have no contact with and possessed a cellphone in contravention of another condition.

Krieger will go on trial next April 24 on drug trafficking and possession of stolen property charges stemming from a Nov. 21, 2007, incident in Red Deer.

Jacqueline Godin, 43, of Red Deer, faces similar charges and will be tried on the same date.

New Catholic school district

A new school district has been created in the Red Deer Catholic Regional School Division.

The district — called the Hekla School District — will encompass a 25-square-km area from around Hwy 54 to Gleniffer Lake. As a result, children in the area who want to attend Catholic schools will be able to use school busing to St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic School in Innisfail until Grade 9 and for their later years to Notre Dame High School in Red Deer.

A family whose children had attended the Spruce View School approached the Catholic school division. The family is within the Chinook’s Edge School Division, which is a secular.

Vince Ackerman, the development co-ordinator with Red Deer Catholic, said in order for the division to have access to transportation grants from the province, the district needed to be created. Otherwise students could still attend the Catholic school system, but parents would have to transport them to the schools or to the nearest bus stop.

Ackerman said a minimum of three Catholic adults or at least 25 per cent of Catholic residents were needed for the proposal to pass. Six voted in favour of it this week. There are eight registered Catholic adults in the area.

As a result, starting in the 2009-2010 school year, students who want to attend Catholic schools will be able to be bused.

Besides giving Catholic families access to busing to Catholic schools, the proposal enables those residents to have their taxes go to the Catholic school division. It also gives Catholic adults in that area the opportunity to vote for Catholic trustees and run as a trustee themselves.

Power outage in Pines

Two apartment buildings, an extended care facility and Gateway Christian School in Pines were without power on Wednesday.

The power is expected to be back on by about 3 p.m.

A cable failure caused the outage, which happens quite regularly, but it usually doesn’t take this long to restore power, said Garfield Lee, senior distribution engineer with the city’s Electric Light and Power Department.

“Most places where we have underground cable we have a loop system so when the cable fails, we can restore customers within an hour or two from the other direction. In this particular case, there’s not an alternate loop,” Lee said.

Crews have had to work around other underground utilities to locate and work on the cable, which was buried 1.8 metres deep instead of the usual 90 cm. Those factors also contributed to the delay in restoring power, he said.

Few residential places in the city do not have a loop system. The Pines system was put in during the 1960s.

“When there’s more than one or two customers on the line we don’t normally do that anymore.”

The cable will be replaced either this year or early next year and at the same time the system will be rebuilt so it has an alternate feed, Lee said.

Five people arrested, guns seized

Five people face possible charges after RCMP raided a Red Deer residence late Tuesday.

Const. Sabrina Grunow said the police used a search warrant to gain entry. Numerous officers were involved, including the emergency response team (ERT).

The street team was also joined by members of the organized crime unit to raid the home on Patterson Crescent at about 7:30 p.m. Cpl. Kathe DeHeer said about two dozen officers were involved in the raid.

Police seized numerous firearms and stolen property.

“They seized a considerable amount of property and they haven’t worked it out yet what all is involved,” DeHeer said.

She said Mounties worked into Wednesday morning sorting out the property and firearms seized.

“It was a significant amount,” she said.

More information won’t be released until today, DeHeer said.

The five people arrested are all from Red Deer. Charges are pending, Grunow said.

The investigation continues.